1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an information processing apparatus which designates output from an image processing apparatus, an information processing method, and a computer-readable medium.
2. Description of the Related Art
When executing output from a PC (Personal Computer) to an image processing apparatus having a plurality of output functions, it is common practice to open a document to be output by an application, and designate output via a device driver corresponding to an output function. To further improve convenience of output to an image processing apparatus, there is a technique of integrating a plurality of device drivers into one virtual device.
For example, there is a technique of facilitating distributed printing to a plurality of devices by integrating device drivers corresponding to a plurality of different devices into one virtual device in accordance with an integration instruction from a user, and enabling output from the virtual device (see Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2006-215725).
Recent image processing apparatuses include various functions such as the FAX function and scan function. In general, there are various device drivers for respective purposes, and the user uses a device driver suited to his purpose. For example, the user uses a print driver for printing and a FAX transmission driver for FAX transmission. If various device drivers for a specific image processing apparatus are integrated into a virtual device driver, and various output instructions to the virtual device driver are accepted from the user, the functions of the image processing apparatus can be more easily used, improving convenience.
However, to implement this configuration, appropriate device drivers (device objects) need to be selected from a plurality of device drivers installed in an OS (Operating System). For example, when a print driver and FAX transmission driver are installed for use in output to a given image processing apparatus, the user needs to select two drivers corresponding to the image processing apparatus from a plurality of existing drivers. This may increase the operation burden on the user.